With various types of vehicles, especially agricultural vehicles, such as tractors, it is desirable to be able to adjust the spacing between the outer extremities of the vehicle and/or to attach peripheral equipment that can tend the crops on either or both sides of the vehicle. Such adjustable vehicles may be used, for example, as mowers, crop sprayers, and/or fertilizers, with some portion of the vehicle moving along a single crop row, and another portion extended from the central axis of locomotion, so as to pass over the adjacent crops or crop rows.
Previous embodiments of such vehicles exist in which the main body of the vehicle, including both the front and rear wheels, remain in their original configuration, with an apparatus attached that extends upwards and/or outwards from the central part of the vehicle in order to apply the desired treatment to adjacent crop rows. Such embodiments have the disadvantage that the modified vehicle has the same width on the ground as the original width of the vehicle, making it difficult or impossible to operate within narrowly-spaced crop rows.
Other tractors include frames whereby the entire body of the tractor is in a raised position. Such high-clearance tractors are configured to pass over crops and treat them as desired. However, such high-clearance tractors may be cumbersome to operate since they typically have a large-turning radius. Moreover, such vehicles are typically unstable due to their raised center of gravity. Additionally, such high-clearance tractors are often cost prohibitive to the typically user.